saltedgreens

I like to use the heads seperately. They make wonderful bisque. Another use... Take the heads and color them in a large rondeau in clarified butter. Deglaze with a little white wine. Add water to cover and reduce to demi-sec. Add a lot of whole butter and simmer for a while. At this point one can strain and freeze (taking care to stir every so often to homogenize the mixture) or, even more flavorful, puree the mixture all together, strain and freeze. Boiling the tails with the heads will add more flavor to the court bouillion and therefore give a more natural/intense flavor to the tails.

"Larousse Gastronomique" is foundational in western cuisine. I like to cross refrence it with the "Oxford Companion to Food" to broaden knowledge base. Tie this with a basic cooking book like "On Cooking" and one will have an operational cooking reference source with understanding as opposed to just following directions. "On Food and Cooking," by Harold Magee, is simply a must to help discern truth. "Cooking with the Seasons" by Jean-Louis Pallidin inspires me still. On a contemporary note... The "Grand livre de Cuisine d'Alain Ducasse," both dessert book and savory book, is essential for today as it depicts recent history of culinary genius. "El Bulli 1998-2002," Ferran Adria, opens doors I never thought possible.

Another use for the pork skin is to tie it up and add it to stock or the braising liquid. Skin has a lot of gelatin that adds body to the liquid it is simmered in. Freeze the skin until ready to use if not going to use it immediately. Wolfert gets to this same point, although in a more flavorful manner. His method is great in that the rind gains complexity in the cure and in the maturing/ripening/mellowing in the fat it is kept in. This then lends great flavor to the process it is later used for. Wolfert, does the skin lose some of its gelatinous properties after the confit process? To clarify, does a significant amount of the gelatin from the pork skin get displaced? I know that gelatin is only water soluble. I am just curious. It seems to me that there may be some loss of gelatin but not anything significant (although this is just a hypothesis).

Remove just the skin for what you are doing. The skin will end up gummy and chewy if braised traditionally. The fat will lend flavor, will take on the cure well, and will help keep the meat from drying out too much. Also, a lot of fat will render out during the lengthy braising process. On a side note, roasted pork belly with the skin on is great as the skin becomes "cracklins" on top of the pork belly.